Keep at it Henry,
Patience, patience as many have said. Down the track you'll look back and laugh and wonder how you struggled when it was all so easy.
As others already mentioned. If you need to align the finderscope to the tube at night. Start with a very bright star first and center the star in the finderscope, then through the eyepiece move the scope arounf a little bit, and you should find the very bright star easily(I hope). Then go back to the finderscope keeping both eyes open and adjust the finderscope screw(2 of them) to align the finderscope centered to the star.
The sky will move slightly, so you may not be 100% aligned finderscope-tube, though once you've nailed it you'll be able to do it nice and quick each session.
A right angle finder might become more frustrating than its worth to start with, as the current straight-through finder gives you a line of sight to where you want to look. You're right on the money about high objects with the straight-through. Doesnt take long before your neck and body start hurting.
Telrads are very simple to use, and save yuo the hassle of leaning over to look through the finderscope, though the finderscope has maginification so it will better assist in finding an object or starhopping compared to the Telrad.
Think of a gunners sight with no magnification. hitting the target would much much harder.
Dont worry about the finderscope bracket not sitting flush in its seat when you tighten the bracket seat screw, the adjustments screws are there to compensate in aligning the finderscope.
Keep at it, and have patience, the night skies are always there, depending on the weather of course.
Hopefully theres many objects to align during the day, eg, a tree branch that stands out, the top of the roof, anything that stands out easily that you'll be able to recognise with ease with a little movement of the main scope.
